Share of money for public education is shrinking

Published 12:03 pm, Wednesday, November 21, 2012

HARTFORD — The state share of funding for public education is shrinking, while local property taxes are rising to make up the difference, according to the main lobbying organization for Connecticut towns and cities.

But with a $300 million deficit emerging in the current budget, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget chief said Tuesday that school funding will join a list of other priorities as the next two-year spending plan is prepared for delivery in February to the General Assembly.

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities reported Tuesday that while the cost of local schools tops $10 billion, the formula of state support, determined in a 1977 court case, is underfunded by $763 million.

The report, aimed at preparing for an upcoming campaign to persuade the General Assembly to increase the Education Cost Sharing program, calls for more state support for a variety of school programs and a reduction in multi-million-dollar state mandates on school districts.

Jim Finley, executive director of the CCM, told reporters in the Capitol that the organization would like the gap to be fully funded within the next four or five years.

“The state has chronically underfunded pre-K through 12 public education,” Finley said. “Municipalities across Connecticut have had to divert resources from non-education local public services in order to pay for the increasing costs of education because the state has not kept its funding bargain with school districts and with property taxpayers.”

The current budget has $50 million more in ECS funding than last year, but $39 million went to the lowest-performing school districts that were required to use the money for new or expanded programs.

“It’s unclear to us at this point whether that $39 million in new funding is going to be a net-plus for those school districts, or are they really going to have to spend more?” Finley said. The ECS formula was developed to give poorer towns and cities more state support and less money for wealthier towns.

He noted that in recent years, the General Assembly has slowly but surely reduced the amount of money to local schools, to the point where now the landmark 1977 school funding court case Horton v. Meskill is being ignored.

Another constitutional case remains on schedule to go to trial in 2014 that could lead to another court order forcing the state to pay more for public education.

Finley said the fastest growing cost for schools is special education, which now exceeds $1.7 billion a year.

“Cities and towns and property taxpayers pay over 60 percent of that cost right now,” Finley said.

Overall, 62 cents out of every property tax dollar goes to pay for pre-K through 12 public education, he said.

Benjamin Barnes, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, told reporters prior to a meeting of an ECS cost-sharing task force, that the current fiscal challenges are forcing the state “to live within our means” and acknowledge spending priorities.

“Education is clearly a huge priority of the governor’s and I expect you’ll see that reflected in his budget, but otherwise it would be premature for me to comment on what he will propose,” said Barnes, the governor’s budget chief.

The ECS task force, made up of lawmakers, educators and members of Malloy’s cabinet, discussed a draft proposal for a four-year funding phase-in and no reduction of ECS funding in the next state budget. A final report is scheduled for next month.